welcome back to the big picture i'm john donvan coming up in this half hour you can have the nicest cars the biggest house and the best high tech gadgets but as the old saying goes money can't buy happiness and america's bigger is better materialistic society is the key to happiness involve giving up everything you have also forget about the grinch who stole christmas we have a bigger problem to worry about when it comes to trying to take away all the holiday cheer and take

a tell you who's trying to force the democrats to shoot santa clause. in the best interest of the news one day or a corporate executive living the high life here wearing armani suits rolex watches and ray-ban sunglasses you live in a house fit for a king have a garage stocked with high priced sports cars and cars more money than most people can dream about your paychecks have more zeros than you can count and if there's a new high tech gadget on the market you have it and one day you wake up and realize that none of this makes you happy and you give it all up well my next guests did just that and they couldn't be happier joining me now joshua milburn and ryan joshua in melbourne ryan nakedness and great to have you guys with us and first of all first of all i want to mention you guys are doing a holly holiday happiness tour it's a two thousand to all event here in d.c.

thursday november twenty ninth that's tomorrow yes ok at the hill sutter twenty one pennsylvania avenue southeast seven pm admission is minimal it's free absolutely there you go so for more information the tour schedule you can go to the minimalists dot com slash tour so let me start out with you joshua. minimalist yes what is this you know it sounds like you were describing most. in my twenty's you know i i aspired to have all that stuff in fact got all of it a fairly young age and right after high school i took a sales job and worked my way up the corporate ladder and eventually became the director of operations for one hundred fifty retail stores and had this really impressive story but i didn't feel fulfilled and in feel happy with all the stuff that i was trying to buy i was accumulating all of these things that were supposed to make me happy but really instead of happiness it brought me debt and anxiety and stress and really i got to the point where i was depressed and as i was approaching age thirty i realized all these things that i was accumulating actually weren't giving me satisfaction i didn't feel like i was living meaningfully in fact i feel

like i i reached a point my life where i didn't know what was important anymore so you started reading throw. you just this popped in your mind no you know actually my mother died and my marriage ended right around the same time and i just sort of question everything in my life and i discovered this thing on the internet a guy named collin wright was writing about this thing he said he was a minimalist and minimalism allowed him to pursue what he was passionate about and i said you know i don't know what minimalism is exactly but i think a man i'm looking for an answer let me at least try this out let me try to simplify my life it's it's worked incredibly well that's great ryan. first of all packing party got a package and what's this yeah so this is this is where i started with a minimalism josh and i we worked at the same corporation and this topic of happiness kept coming up and josh showed me this thing called minimalism and i kind

of a read read a little bit about and i thought ok great i'm a minimalist now what do i do and we came up with this great idea of a packing party and the idea of this packing party was to literally pack up everything in my two thousand square foot condo i packed up you know both living rooms all three bedrooms you know all two and i have everything i had packed everything up in boxes and i don't pack things as i needed it day by day for about three weeks. and after these twenty one days i had about seventy five eighty percent of my stuff left in these boxes and that was a revelation moment for me you know here's all these things that work so hard to have all these things that i really really wanted since i was a young child and they were doing their job and making me happy so that's that's where i first had adopted the minimalist lifestyle either you guys read on walden pond or david thoreau if the writings of buddha were you were kind of doing the thorough thing now with wife yeah we moved out to montana recently to do some woodshedding and work on our necks but i would say that musicians do that now where

they kind of lock themselves in a woodshed and create something more meaningful that way by by eliminating sort of the distractions in their life so you musicians know know what we're doing we should be near writing we're showing here doing the writing and we're working on the next book but but you know we sort of eliminate a lot of the distractions in our lives for for a temporary period of time but but you know for me the stuff was never about just getting rid of the stuff to deprive myself of anything for me minimalism was sort of the initial bite at the apple why it was it was getting rid of the stuff so i could go down the path towards something more important get rid of the stuff that was in the way basically and important means what for me i had to discover that for me health was a big thing i weighed seventy pounds more than i weigh now relationships for the longest time i forsook the most important relationships of my life the people that we should be treating as our primary relationships we tend to treat quite often as

if they are secondary or third tier relationships we don't dedicate the time we need to relationships and then also things that i'm passionate about and i'm really passionate about writing a passion about contributing to other people ryan. so often when you when you meet somebody in a social situation that you don't know the first question is what do you do and. and you know there's there's kind of two things implicit in that one is where are you in the social pecking order and the second is and of course you are your job right so what well how would a minimalists what question would a minimalist ask and what answer would a minimalist give if they were asked that question you know what do you do so you know like you said we we do tend to wrap our identities up in our work and when someone asks you what you do that is what you describe what you do for work but you know at the end of the day that's not what all of us really are passionate about or what we what we love to do so

a question i would ask is what do you care about what are you passionate about and kind of change the question up a little bit because you know if i first meet someone why are we going to talk about work something that really we don't want to talk about something that we do that we really don't enjoy so if someone's asked me what i did i would turn it around and say well you know i'm passionate about snowboarding or i'm passionate about writing or i'm passionate about adding value to other people and then i would turn the question around what are you passionate about yeah so so this holiday happiness tour this this gig you guys are doing tomorrow and here in d.c. what's a story you know this kind of go talk to people and we've been really fortunate we've been doing this second tour now and we have some good attendance people show up and we just talk to this is sort of always this really a book tour yes you know we're doing a book tour but it's a lot more than that it's a lot more we just go out and talk to people and that's why you know the events free but but you know we'll never require anyone comes to purchase anything there's

a there's a theory that. neal how william strauss i think when is his first name strauss now and how they wrote this book called the fourth turning and they came to this theory that there are these four generations that continuously recur throughout history and that one of those four generations goes through a thorough moment. and you know if you go back every eighty years you will find a generation we're a large chunk of the generation just kind of goes minimalist. do you think that that's happening to the people of your generate you city around thirty in the neighborhood that you think that that's happening to that generational traunch for you guys are or are you trying to make that happen i mean do you think you're reflecting on his shoulder leading water or is this just a personal thing you know. that's a really interesting question because you know we don't have a certain demographic that shows up to our meet ups we've had you know a ten year old show up we've had an eighty three year old show up it really does

stretch across generations i think really you know the message that we talk about what it speaks to is we don't have to mass consume to be happy and that's really what we write about and that's what we talk about these meta could be the time i mean this is this is a this is an era where people a lot of people who may have thought that stuff was going to make them happy or looking around go on i got forty thousand dollars in student debt you know sure i'm not going to have any stuff for a long time i could better figure out some other way to get happy you know maybe maybe a reaction to the we came into the world sort of at the tail end of gen x. forever forge and why it may be a bit of a reaction to that you know where it's about accumulating stuff i can relate a lot of things i had the big house that i had the luxury cars i had tons of clothes and gadgets and all that stuff you described at the beginning of the segment and that stuff didn't make me happy i think a lot of people are realizing that now they don't have to get to that apex but they as they're climbing the hill i think they might be able to look and see this stuff actually isn't making me happy. gentlemen thank you so much for being with us i

think. it's crude news there are no two ways about it conservatives did a horribly with a female vote in this year's election so you'd think they'd have learned their. it's an end of the war on women right not so much apparently they didn't get the memo at least in arizona where the state's department of health services has created a new website aimed at persuading women from having abortions one arizona republican state lawmaker representative kimberly is on the record saying she believes that this feud anti-abortion web site will convince women not to have abortions joining me now to talk more about arizona's new website and other news of the frontlines of the war on women is sam bennett president of the she should run foundation sam welcome back to the program it's great to see a pleasure tom isn't arizona's restrictive abortion ban blocked from having effect

are the state officials getting away with launching this website. well the same way that officials across the country have gotten away with what was that the eleven hundred pieces of anti woman legislation that we saw introduced in two thousand and eleven it's almost as if they just want to see what they can get away with in truth as you said they missed the memo they didn't learn the lesson this election was overwhelmingly a mandate from both sides of the aisle that enough is enough look at claire mccaskill's race right where she handily won against akin in a state that voted for romney why was that will heck of a lot of republican women crossed over and voted for her to stick show that so the real issue here i think is what we need is far more moderate republican women tom elected to office republicans like senator olympia snowe susan collins and even loose lisa murkowski in alaska those kinds of women wouldn't be introducing this

kind of nonsense although a lead torah lee proven poor electoral strategy although all the loose a couldn't get her own republican party behind her but. the we just have ninety seconds same i'm sorry with the second annual she should run national conversation election two thousand and twelve straight up unfiltered you're having this december fourth here in d.c. sixty eight thirty three of the national cable telecommunications association twenty five mass ave in d.c. you can go to she should run dot org for info what is it. it is she should run dot org you can check it out check us out at w.c.s. online dot o. r g for the other side of the fence women's campaign fund ok and so this is you're basically supporting women to run for political political office that's correct on women's campaign fund side we support women tom that support reproductive choices and options at all levels of government in both both sides of the aisle because the only way we're going to protect the environment women's right to choose on both

sides of the aisle and that both sides of the aisle is really important are you getting any traction with republicans absolutely we are this very high interest we're the only national organization actually positioned to help the moderate republican women whose party own party goes against them in the case of lisa murkowski or discuss of ave here in new york so what they need is some sort of safe haven tom to rebuild themselves because you and i both know right the modern republican woman used to be the mainstay of the republican party and we need to rebuild that very well said sam bennett thanks so much for being with us tonight my pleasure tom we'll be right back.

it was not the military we have now today signed a new contract with a unit of the huge contract. it was not the authorization to secure and rebuild the devastated country caliber company field taxpayers for its contract work in iraq. it was the campaign for making billions of dollars for other reasonable and ordered bills exceed one billion dollars iraq for sale. or profiteers. wealthy british style. that's not on the.

market. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to conjure reports . it's the good the bad of the very very quick is a show. the good st louis missouri city count kicks in the county council last night the council voted to approve nondiscrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity both came after fairly contentious public comments even the n.r.a. lobbied to block the bill citing faulty information that the bill would actually take away people's second amendment rights not true time communities across america

followed in st louis is st louis county's footsteps and an act of legislation to protect members the entire membership of the. the bat mr grand high school many high schools across america conduct drug sweep spit. now many of them hire private prison corporations to conduct them instead of relying on actual law enforcement agencies this to grant high school in arizona hired c.c.a. the corrections corporation of america to conduct its drug sweeps and none of the school's staff saw anything wrong with private prison companies like c.c.a. or just that private corporations they're not actual law enforcement agencies and they have no place conducting drug sweeps in our nation's public schools and the very very ugly rick warren or on the mega church pastor was interviewed by piers morgan on c.n.n. last night in the interview one was asked about his feelings towards homosexuality was what he had to say. if what we know about life. i have

all kinds of natural. feelings that my life. and it doesn't necessarily mean that i should act on every feeling sometimes i get angry and i feel like punching a guy in the nose it doesn't mean i act on it sometimes as you point out sometimes i feel attracted to women who are not my wife i don't act them just because i have a feeling doesn't make it right not everything natural is good for me arsenic is never that. one will marriage equality opponents like war and realize that homosexuality is not a choice let's hope soon because these incredibly ignorant comments are very very ugly.

on the day after the election rush limbaugh blames santa claus for mitt romney's defeat conservatism in my humble opinion did not lose last night each just very difficult to beat santa claus. it is practically impossible to beat santa claus people are not going to vote against santa claus especially the night before on election night as the tide was turning against romney fellow republican kingpin bill o'reilly said this there are fifty percent of the voting public who want stuff they want things and who is going to give them things president obama he knows it and he ran on it the words president obama won by plane santa claus even mitt romney himself blames santa claus obama after his loss romney told donors the obama

campaign was following the old playbook of giving a lot of stuff to groups that they hoped they could get to vote for them and be motivated to go out to the polls pacifically the african-american community to spend a community and young people. referring to president obama's reforms that allowed young people to stay on their parents' health insurance plans romney called it a big give to young people these men especially rush limbaugh perfectly summed up the message the republican establishment took from their election defeat which was it is practically impossible to be santa claus but this is something republicans have known for quite a long time as i lay out my new article who shot santa running the latest edition of hustler magazine republicans first learned this lesson in the one nine hundred thirty s. and forty's after the new deal when democratic president franklin roosevelt played the role of santa claus and gave the american people social security and unemployment insurance at that time republicans played scrooge arguing we can't afford it it played the role of scrooge in the sixty's too as democratic president

lyndon johnson played santa clause as well and gave the american people medicare and other great society programs to cut poverty and what did republicans get for playing scrooge electoral defeat after electoral defeat starting with f.d.r.'s big win in one nine hundred thirty six with the lone exception of a two year do nothing congress elected in one nine hundred forty six republicans never held a majority in the house of representatives until nineteen ninety five and the way they were able to finally come out of this political slump was by listening to a republican strategist and photo economist named jude when in ski. when askey who wrote a transfer transformative article for the national observer in one thousand nine hundred seventy six and laid out the new republican path to power it was titled taxes and a two set of theory in that when when he warned that republicans embrace the role of scrooge plane into the hands of the democrats you know the first rule of successful politics is never shoot santa clause as long as republicans have it says

that of balance budgets their influence as a party has shrivel and since as limbaugh said you can't beat santa claus and when is he said republicans need to play santa claus themselves become the santa clause of tax cuts when a ski wrote the only thing wrong is the failure of the republican party to play santa claus to santa claus theory holds that republicans should concentrate on tax reduction in other words democrats can give gifts like social security and medicare a lower pay for them and republicans can counter with gifts like massive tax cuts which is exactly what they did when ronald reagan was elected in one nine hundred eighty and picked as an advisor but there was another dimension to win a ski's strategy that he doesn't explicitly lay out in that article and that's this if republicans by playing santa claus on their own successfully passed their tax cuts as reagan and bush two did without cutting spending. then the government is

starved of revenue we go into debt until eventually we can't afford the democratic party's social services like social security unemployment insurance and medicare all the things that the republicans have called get us and if republicans scream and yell enough about the deficit they've created with their tax cuts then maybe just maybe it will force the democrats to reverse roles to play screwed and eventually shoot santa clause it was a brilliant political strategy that has worked for more than thirty years for wall of sleaze bags to their tax cuts republican presidents have added nearly ten trillion dollars in debt to the nation's balance books since reagan which is far more than democratic presidents and yet is the republican party that pretends to be the most concerned about the national debt devoting every breath to nightmare scenarios of what might happen if we don't bring our annual deficits under control but cutting social spending and unable to see through this blatant hypocrisy and to

recognize that republican deficit hawks are just plain politics democratic presidents have fallen right into when is the strap they're shooting setter. clinton pulled the trigger in one thousand nine hundred six when he blasted a hole in l.b.j.'s great society legislation and ended welfare as we know it and earlier this year president obama did it when he signed on to legislation that cut emergency unemployment benefits down from ninety nine weeks to seventy four weeks depending on the state and today with the so-called fiscal cliff looming republicans want barack obama and democrats to fire the blood is shots of all against santa claus they want democrats to riddle social security and medicare with bullets and with the help of the corporate media republicans have managed to create this false equivalency that says of taxes go up on the wealthiest two percent of americans and the rust of the nation has to suffer from deep budget cuts to social

welfare programs the unemployed would need to get by with fewer employed men to get by with fewer benefits and senior citizens have to work longer before they can qualify for medicare to them this is what's called a balanced approach. despite claims to the white house of social security is off the negotiating table both president obama and vice president biden have thrown support behind a sort of green bargain like simpson bowles that will leave the republican santa clause that delivered low tax rates nicked by paper cuts but leave the democratic santa clause a shot of a bloody mess recognizing what might be on the horizon progressive senator bernie sanders said this after the election. we're going to send a loud message. the leadership in my house in the senate and president of bad do not have children should you know you do not have a medicare do not problematic a. bad option of. having

a back to me and i may have we may not matter in the bedroom i have a box of the elderly the sick the children they haven't. in other words don't shoot the democrat santa clause which we pay for by the way to reduce the deficit or bernie sanders of the progress is understand is that democrats haven't been playing santa claus for the last eighty years just to win elections they don't play santa claus to save the nation and our economic system as we know it face of the great depression and communist revolutions around the world roosevelt had to enact the new deal just to save capitalism itself in america and the american people were willing to pay for it faced with the crisis of poverty the one nine hundred sixty s. and the hardships senior citizens are facing upon retirement l.b.j. enacted the great society and medicare because the people wanted gifts from santa claus but because people needed help and providing for the general welfare is

according to our constitution one of the main purposes for which our government itself was created and despite what limbaugh o'reilly and other con say providing student loan relief isn't a gift it's a necessity now that outstanding student loan is topped up trillion dollars ensuring the women have access to contraceptives that's right for proving undocumented or providing c.b. undocumented workers have a pathway to citizenship isn't a gift it's the humane thing to do and making sure impoverished children have health care summit gift it's the moral thing to do. americans have handed democrats electoral victories throughout the decades because they want the sort of america that the democratic santa clause offers which is a we society that allows for a strong middle class and basic protections from old age sickness and unemployment

and the american people are willing to pay for it in other words we want life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and we're willing to pay for it let's hope democrats understand this fast and don't fall for the republican gimmick started by juden inskeep more than thirty years ago because right now santa claus stands blindfolded in front of a firing squad and it's the democrats led by president obama who have been maneuvered by the republicans into a position to pull the trigger and if they do that not only does the democratic senate clothes die so too does the democratic party itself and along with it the american middle class. and that's the way it is tonight. if i were twenty eight. for more information on any of the stories we covered visit our website dot com dot org. and if you missed any of the night's show you can now watch it. also check out our two you tube channel. also to check out all the different ways

you can send us your feedback and don't forget democracy to be with you get out there show up participate go to move to amend or get out or get active your it sibyl.